Luxury Travel & Lifestyle Trends

The trend of hotel alternatives continues as home-swapping and the vacation rentals continue to grow. Many services cropped up to meet demand. TradetoTravel is one luxury vacation home exchange service with a portfolio of 400 vacation properties valued between $1 million and $20 million. Uniquely, they meet any preferences in houses, designs or themes.

Some call it vandalism. Others regard it as an expression of street lifestyle - even modern art. Yet, graffiti is becoming a popular player on the international art scene, garnering graffiti tourism dollars.

London’s Tate Modern turned its walls into a blank canvas for a graffiti exhibition. Its riverside facade was covered with giant murals by six urban artists with international reputations, including Blu from Bologna, Faile from New York, and Sixeart from Barcelona. Likewise, Miami, known for its whimsical palate of color and style, is seeing a resurgence of the street art. Tourists and locals alike are bypassing the museums and galleries, and heading to the Wynwood Art District (once dilapidated, now prime real estate) to see a selection of the best murals. Graffiti is even becoming an important dimension to red-hot Art Basel Miami Beach and the alternative fairs that come with it.

We recently wrote that over the last few years, ART has become a central focus for hoteliers due to its appeal to affluent consumers, and graffiti ties into this trend perfectly. The Hotel Erwin announced its arrival on the trendy, eclectic shores of California’s Venice Beach, the handwriting was on the wall - in this case, the exterior wall, just outside the entrance. In fact, the handwriting was in glowing, screaming neon colors, splashed there by NORM, a local graffiti artist whose signature work gave the new 119-room hotel immediate street credibility. “When we were designing the hotel it was very important that the hotel be a reflection and good partner with the local community,” said Benjamin Malmquist, general manager. “And Venice is renowned, has a worldwide reputation, for some really unique and creative graffiti art. That’s part of the culture at Venice Beach.”

Hence, a hotel as canvas, a gallery, as a showcase and a studio.

In case you haven’t noticed, the interest in vampirism has exploded. Media news and Nielsen online have reported the demographics for the growing trend toward vampiric entertainment. According to their reports: “There has been increasing mainstream interest in and gravitation towards all things vampire, most recently spurred by the Twilight books/movies and the HBO series, TrueBlood. And even if these aren’t familiar topics to you yet, marketers are keen to the vampire mystique.”

Over the last couple years, ART has become a central focus for hoteliers due to its appeal to affluent consumers (i.e. art is a part of an affluent lifestyle), its ability to add personality to any room, and the value it adds to the guest experience. An added benefit - it can be a very good investment over time. As a result, we’re seeing more and more hotels creating distinctive interiors by keeping up with some of the hottest trends affecting the art market.

You’ve got to aim to get your message everywhere for maximum impact, giving your target markets the chance to listen to it, watch it, and read it - whenever they want it. Ubiquity is a watchword because of the fragmentation of people’s media consumption habits, as in we can no longer count on reaching the masses at least once through several media channels (an exception possibly being the Super Bowl).

Just about everyone is in agreement, and above all affluent travelers, that the hotel star system worldwide has lost credibility. The proof of the pudding? Hotels have had to call themselves six or seven star to affirm their luxury credentials.

Anyone who doubts the committed audience of online communities should have gone with me to Miami Yelp’s Spice Trade hosted by the Mandarin Oriental, where local reviewers could mesh in real life. It was quite a happening, with some of the Miami’s leading restaurants offering up Chinese dumplings, Indian curry, California rolls, cupcakes, and exotic drinks to match.

There are increasingly more articles in the mass media about hotels not rate-cutting or offering value adds – a sign that times are starting to change. So what’s the deal? Quality seems to making a comeback as a motivator in buying decisions of the affluent (though in the case of a few brands such Hermes, that was never a factor, as it was one of the luxury brands that had the lowest drop in sales in this year’s Great Recession).

Until now, being “green” has predominantly meant selling eco-friendly products or services. But this year’s tough economy presents a new opportunity for businesses to take environmental stewardship to a new level – by helping customers buy less stuff. But it has to be the “right stuff.”

Value added alone is not enough. Early in 2009, many marketers thought that offering “value adds” would be enough - i.e. a four-night stay for the price of three, a resort credit, a free dessert when ordering an entrée, etc. As the year progressed, it was obvious that these initiatives weren’t enough. The overall rate had to be priced right as well.